Too little

“But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler of Israel.”  Micah 5:2

Too little – Do you every wonder why God seems to do everything backwards?  He seems to choose people who aren’t equipped for the job.  He chose a nation of wandering ex-slaves as His own.  He picked plenty of people who were down and out or whose pasts were full of terrible acts.  Everywhere you look in the Bible, you see God making personnel choices that would never make the first cut in our selections.

This famous Messianic prophecy has the same kind of feel.  Bethlehem, just too insignificant to matter to anyone, is chosen as the birthplace of the King of kings.  The Hebrew word sa’iyr often means young or small or little.  But here the emphasis is on insignificant.  Too little to matter.  If we were God’s consultants, we would probably suggest the Palace or at least the big city.  But God had another idea in mind.

Jesus often said that children exemplified the Kingdom of Heaven.  They were also sa’iyr.  Insignificant.  Too little.  But God sees models of dependence and submission.  Things that we believe we need to grow out of are often exactly what God says are most important to keep.

Two thousand years after the birth of Jesus, we have made Bethlehem an icon.  It’s no longer an insignificant speck on the map.  Maybe that’s a mistake.  We have taken one of God’s insignificant glories and made it into a shrine.  I haven’t been there.  Do you suppose they charge admission? 

God loves what’s “too little”.  Why?  Because being too little removes all of the human claims of glory.  God seems to prefer to use those things that Man cannot lay claim to.  God seems to exhibit His glory where we would see only uselessness.  Announcing the birth to shepherds?  How useless is that!  It’s the same thing in our lives.  What we think is useless is probably exactly what God wants to use for his glory.  Is there a part of your life that you just can’t see any reason for?  Something that is just insignificant?  Why not give God complete control of the “too little” things and see what He does?  You never know when you might end up in Bethlehem.

Today:  Pick one insignificant element in your life.  Then say, “Father, I give this completely to you.  Do what you want with it even if I can’t see any worth in it at all.”